


Tis the Season

by viviegirl05



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Peppermint, Peter has spider traits, spider qualities, spiders hate peppermint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 12:30:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18469012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viviegirl05/pseuds/viviegirl05
Summary: It was Christmas time, and May was getting into the spirit. She had spent her day off decorating the apartment with all the festivity of the season, using an oil and reed diffuser to make the apartment smell like peppermint and Christmas spirit as a finishing touch. When Peter came home Christmas was going to smack him in the face, May thought with amusement as she surveyed her work. Satisfied, May settled into the couch to watch a movie.At 3pm on the dot the door to the apartment opened as Peter arrived home from school. As they agreed when May found out he was Spiderman, Peter would come home and do his homework before he was allowed to go on patrol. May turned to greet her nephew and the words stuck in her throat at the expression on Peter’s face. He looked utterly repulsed, nose scrunched and lip curled in disgust.“Peter? What…”“What the HELL is that stench?!”





	Tis the Season

It was Christmas time, and May was getting into the spirit. She had spent her day off decorating the apartment with all the festivity of the season, using an oil and reed diffuser to make the apartment smell like peppermint and Christmas spirit as a finishing touch. When Peter came home Christmas was going to smack him in the face, May thought with amusement as she surveyed her work. Satisfied, May settled into the couch to watch a movie.

At 3pm on the dot the door to the apartment opened as Peter arrived home from school. As they agreed when May found out he was Spiderman, Peter would come home and do his homework before he was allowed to go on patrol. May turned to greet her nephew and the words stuck in her throat at the expression on Peter’s face. He looked utterly repulsed, nose scrunched and lip curled in disgust. 

“Peter? What…”

“What the  _ hell _ is that stench?!”

“What are you talking about? Peter, what stench?” May got up and walked over to her nephew, concerned. Peter hissed when she got closer, turning from her and rushing from the apparently foul-smelling apartment.

“Peter!” May tried to follow him, but he was a superhero, not a middle-aged woman who hadn’t seen the inside of a gym in years; he was gone before she reached the top of the stairs.

Unsettled, May decided to call Tony. He could track Peter, maybe figure out what the heck had happened to make her usually mild-mannered nephew act so strangely. She returned to the apartment to get her phone, nervous for Peter. Did this have something to do with the spider bite? Was Peter getting sick? The more she thought about it the more worried she became.

“Tony? It’s May.”

“Hello May. What can I do for you this fine afternoon?” Tony answered flirtily.

“It’s Peter.”

“Is something wrong? Is he hurt? I didn’t get a notification from his suit-”

“No, he isn’t hurt. He’s just acting weird. He got home after school and wouldn’t come in the apartment- he acted like the place smelled absolutely horrible! When I got closer to him he actually hissed at me and ran away!” May got more and more worked up as she spoke, obviously worried.

“Calm down, its ok, I’ll track him down and figure out what’s wrong. I’m sure it’s nothing and everything will be fine,” Tony soothed.

After a few more reassurances they hung up. Tony immediately pulled up the information for Peter’s spider-suit, easily locating him sitting stationary on a rooftop in Queens. Suiting up, Tony took off to meet his protege and figure out what was up.

Landing smoothly, Tony approached Peter, who was perched on the edge of the roof with his legs dangling as he munched on a sandwich. “Hey kid,” he greeted, seating himself next to Peter.

“Hey,” Peter replied, glancing at Tony before quickly averting his gaze back to his sandwich. Awkward silence reigned for a few moments. 

“So. Your aunt called me.”

“I figured,” Peter sighed.

“Want to tell me what happened?” Tony tilted his head, eyeing Peter.

“The apartment stinks. Like,  _ really _ stinks. Like something died or something. I can’t go in there- it’s awful, Mr. Stark.” Peter admitted.

“Alright. Well, why don’t you stay at the tower while I figure out what’s up with your apartment?” Tony suggested.

“Ok,” Peter readily agreed, letting Tony know exactly how bad the smell was as Peter didn’t argue that it was ok and that he could handle it.

“Want a ride?” Tony offered as he stood, knowing how much Peter loved flying with Iron Man.

They arrived at the tower within minutes, Peter scampering off to his room to change out of his suit and do his homework with little prompting. Tony sent the suit to the lab and called Happy to get the car. They got to the Parker’s apartment easily enough considering New York traffic. Tony knocked on the door that swung open almost instantly to reveal an anxious May Parker.

“He’s fine,” Tony immediately reassured her, “he’s at the tower, totally safe, doing homework.”

May let out a relieved breath, “good, good...so what’s wrong? Why did he run away like that?”

“Apparently the apartment stinks,” Tony said, breathing in the scent of peppermint, which was not at all unpleasant to his senses.

“What?” May frowned, “it smells fine in here- he loves peppermint.”

“Wait, peppermint,” Tony suddenly realized. “Spiders hate peppermint.”

“Oh my god, how did I forget that?” May exclaimed, “my mom always used peppermint to keep spiders away when I was a kid.

“It must be what drove Peter away,” Tony agreed, pulling out his phone. “I’ll call a cleaning service to scrub this place down and get rid of the peppermint smell.”

“Thank you,” May said, “there’s no way I could manage all that cleaning with work tomorrow.”

Shooting off a few texts, Tony turned back to May, “they’ll be here first thing in the morning- they can deep clean the place while you’re at work.”

“Ok,” May nodded readily, “thank you Tony.”

“Don’t mention it,” Tony said breezily. “Peter can stay at the tower tonight, I’ll make sure he gets to school on time.”

“Thank you,” May said again.

After a bit more small talk to work out the details of letting in the cleaning crew, Tony took his leave.

The following day a cleaning crew of eight people showed up promptly at 7:30am. May let them in before grabbing her purse and hurrying out the door and off to work. The cleaning crew gathered up all the cloth items- clothes, curtains, bedding, pillows, couch cushions, everything- taking them to a special, high-end dry cleaner who could thoroughly clean them and get them back by the end of the day. They scrubbed every surface, including the couch and mattresses with a special, dry product, making sure every surface was surgically clean, not a trace of peppermint left behind.

When May got home at midnight the cleaning crew was gone and the apartment was spotless and fresh-smelling. Taking a deep breath and relaxing, May grabbed something to eat and headed to bed. 

The next day after school, Peter cautiously opened the door to the apartment, wary after the disastrous experience from the last time. Sniffing delicately before growing bolder, Peter edged he was inside, scenting the air for peppermint and finding none. Relaxing at the clean smell, Peter dropped his backpack on the dining table and went to the kitchen in search of a snack. 

In the end everything was fine, but May never used peppermint again.

  
  



End file.
